Watercooler Stories

Gandhi's grandson praises social media

FORT WORTH, Texas, April 7 (UPI) -- Mahatma Gandhi's grandson said during a visit to Texas his grandfather would have used social media Web sites if they had been available to him.

Arun Gandhi, 76, a prominent peace activist and grandson of the non-violent protester for Indian independence, said his grandfather "tapped into everything possible" including "newspapers and radio," the prevalent forms of media at the time, and would use Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter if he were alive today, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported Wednesday.

Gandhi, who is visiting Fort Worth to deliver the keynote address for Texas Wesleyan University's University College Day, said social media sites have been powerful tools for those who practice civil disobedience.

"It has speeded up things. It has made it possible to communicate far and wide," he said.

The activist said the most important lesson he learned from his grandfather "has to do with how to deal with anger. He used to tell me anger is like electricity. It is powerful and useful, but only if we use it intelligently. It can be just as deadly and destructive if we abuse it."

'Frack' protest signs draw complaints

SOUTHLAKE, Texas, April 7 (UPI) -- The mayor of a Texas city says people are complaining to City Hall about signs that pun the drilling term "fracking" as a substitute for profanity.

Southlake Mayor John Terrell said Town Hall has received numerous complaints about the signs, which bear messages such as "Get the frack out of here" and "Don't frack with me," but he told the City Council during a meeting that the signs are protected by being on private property, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported Wednesday.

"We cannot regulate the content of these signs based on freedom of speech, which is protected under the First Amendment," Terrell said. "I just bring this to everyone's attention so that the folks who put up the signs know that there has been numerous complaints lobbed against those."

The signs are protesting XTO Energy's planned gas drilling at the Milner Ranch, which was approved by the City Council in February. The use of "frack" on the signs refers to "fracking," the drillers' process for fracturing rocks by shooting water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure.

NYC bus no match for kid's trike

NEW YORK, April 7 (UPI) -- The notoriously slow M42 crosstown bus on Manhattan's 42nd Street has been beaten by a man on a child's tricycle, a clip of the race posted online shows.

Mark Malkoff, 35, challenged the bus in a 1-mile race from 10th Avenue to Madison Avenue Feb. 17 and won by 2 minutes, 38 seconds.

Malkoff, a filmmaker, released the video proof Wednesday at www.MyDamnChannel.com/MarkMalkoff.

The 5-foot-7, 131-pound Malkoff pulled up alongside the bus at 1:18 p.m. on a Razor Rip Rider 360, and the race was on.

"Once the green light went, the bus was destroying me," he told the New York Daily News. "Then we were neck and neck for a while, and suddenly I was able to propel myself faster."

He said he obeyed all traffic lights.

A camera was mounted on the handlebars, and a video team followed him as he reached speeds of 4.7 mph.

Malkoff made it to Madison Avenue in 12 minutes, 42 seconds. The bus took 15 minutes, 20 seconds to cover the same distance at an average of 3.9 mph.

A new name for Witchcraft Heights school?

SALEM, Mass., April 7 (UPI) -- Some officials in Salem, Mass., want to rename the Witchcraft Heights Elementary School to honor a longtime city council member.

School board member Nate Bryant told The Boston Globe he has been approached by some parents who do not like the name's supernatural air. Others want to commemorate Leonard O'Leary, who represented the Witchcraft Heights area on the council for 24 years and died shortly after leaving office in 2007.

Others want to leave well enough alone.

"We are adamantly opposed to it,'' Cheryl Pszenny, president of the Witchcraft Heights' Parent Teacher Organization, told the Globe. "I mean the Witchcraft name is part of the history of the city. It's the only school in the country bearing that name.''

The name Witchcraft Heights was given to a housing development put up shortly after World War II. It refers to the best-known episode in Salem's long and eventful history, when scores of people were accused of witchcraft in 1692, 19 convicted witches hung and one accused man pressed to death when he refused to enter a plea.

Since then, the city has been a major hub of the 19th-century China trade, home to writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and the headquarters of Parker Brothers when the company began manufacturing Monopoly board games. But the memory of the witch trials is what draws thousands of tourists every year, the newspaper said.